Mark Warburton believes Nottingham Forest possess good defensive options in their squad – but says the Reds must work hard to defend better as a team.

Forest have conceded three set-piece goals in their last two games but, while boss Warburton admits that is an area in which they must improve, he says it is not just the responsibility of the Reds’ defenders to address it.

The Reds do possess a clutch of experienced central defenders in particular, with Matt Mills, Jack Hobbs, Michael Mancienne and Danny Fox all having proved themselves in the second tier, while Joe Worrall is a bright prospect at the City Ground and Armand Traore has also looked good when asked to play as part of a central defensive trio.

And Warburton believes rather than signing new defenders, a better answer is to work on being more solid as a team.

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Warburton does acknowledge that Forest need to sharpen up when it comes to opposition corners and free-kicks.

“We have to work on that, of course. You cannot get away from the fact that we have conceded three set-piece goals in two games,” he said. “Against Brentford it was soft. But we have to learn from it, we have to learn from the cleverness and be stronger in certain areas.

“But then you can also say, ‘do not give away the cheap free-kick in the first place'. If you think of the cheap free-kicks we have given away, we have caused our own problems.

“Defend with intelligence, stay on your feet and be patient. Don’t give away cheap opportunities to the opposition.”

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Middlesbrough will arrive at the City Ground tomorrow armed with significant attacking threat. As well as former Forest men Britt Assombalonga and Patrick Bamford, they boast the powerful figure of Rudy Gestede – who has posed the Reds plenty of aerial problems in the past.

But Warburton hopes that Boro will be equally concerned about Forest’s own attacking arsenal.